The excess container volume in the global shipping market has reached 5 million TEU.
The gradual return to normalization of supply chains has caused the container liner industry to be dragged down by a surplus of around 5 million TEU containers, which are piling up in terminals and warehouses around the world.
Weak consumer demand and the ensuing easing of supply chain congestion have given carriers the costly hangover from the boom, as cargo revenues plummeted even as storage costs for their equipment soared.
Global container equipment grew 2% last year to 50.9 million TEUs, according to Drewry's latest Container Equipment Forecast report, although the consultancy expects a 3% contraction this year. Shipping companies will urgently seek to de-lease as many containers as possible and decommission their own old equipment, it said.
Drewry's senior analyst for container equipment, John Fossey, said he expects thousands of leased containers to be returned to leasing companies this year, combined with the sale of containers to the second-hand market for storage and other uses, and by the end of the year, the backlog of A significant portion of the 5 million TEU surplus containers will be removed.
